IOM and Partners Deal With Emergency Shelter Whilst Looking to Longer Term Solutions in Haiti

Posted on Wednesday, 27-01-2010

Haiti - IOM and its partners working on providing emergency shelter assistance to victims of Haiti’s earthquake are rushing to distribute their stocks of tarpaulins and plastic sheeting until sufficient numbers of family-sized tents can be brought into the country.

An estimated 900,000 to 1.1 million people are believed to be in acute need of emergency shelter assistance in Haiti, according to assessment data compiled by IOM and its partners, the vast majority of them in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

In an effort to tackle the complex challenge of immediately assisting such large numbers of people whilst ensuring adequate shelter protection is available in the coming months when the rainy and hurricane seasons arrive, IOM and its partners in Haiti are focusing on distributing tens of thousands of tarpaulins and plastic sheets to improve shelter conditions for those made homeless until more tents arrive in the country.

These tents would be used to shelter homeless families at new settlement sites and to improve living conditions at hundreds of makeshift settlements that have mushroomed in Port-au-Prince and in urban areas in other affected towns and villages in the country.

"Tents are a three-five month option in the midst of the dry season. But emergency and transitional shelter solutions sufficiently durable to last at least two years need to be found before the heavy rains arrive in a few months," said Vincent Houver, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti.

This would allow some time for reconstruction and recovery efforts to be put in place.

A shelter strategy devised by IOM and partners comprising 55 organizations including the UN and local and international non-governmental organizations and donors and shared with the donor community in Haiti, is stressing the need, however, to minimize displacement away from existing homes where it is safe to do so.

A major challenge is, nevertheless, how to allow people to remain close to their former homes and communities when the scale of the need is such that it will be necessary to create a limited number of temporary settlements outside of Port-au-Prince, although this is recognized as a last resort.

Past crises have shown that although the pressure to act quickly to provide safe shelter is high, the creation of large temporary settlements away from communities and livelihood opportunities have proved to create dependencies, social problems, insecurity and inhibit long-term recovery.

Another challenge facing the government and the humanitarian community is in finding safe and sufficiently open spaces to establish transitional settlements in dense urban areas and in providing security at makeshift sites.

However, organized transitional settlements not exceeding 10,000 people would allow for government ministries and humanitarian partners to design and deliver comprehensive and coordinated services such as water and sanitation, health, food, education and protection.

Meanwhile, IOM is working with the French NGO ACTED (que ha estado entregando los paquetes de la ShelterBox UK)to prepare a settlement site at Tabarre in Port-au-Prince for a maximum of 3,500 people with the support of engineers from another NGO, Engineering Ministries International (EMI), and in coordination with the Haitian Prime Minister’s Office.

Yesterday, 25 boy and girl scouts of Tabarre volunteered to help put up the first tents, while pits for latrines and water evacuation were being dug. Today, trucks of gravel will be brought in and latrine tanks will be installed. IOM and ACTED are aiming to finish the site by the end of the week.

Islamic Relief UK has also been working to improve living conditions for 864 people at a makeshift site at St. Claire in the Delmas 33 neighbourhood. People now have tents and access to water and sanitation with the British NGO also providing medical check-ups and other non-food assistance to every family.

IOM and partners are seeking to reach about 200,000 families (one million people) with shelter and non-food assistance.

In response to an initial appeal launched on 15 January and which will be shortly revised to better reflect the scale of needs in the country, the Organization had asked for USD 30 million to provide emergency shelter and non-food assistance and to establish a cash-for-work programme that would include rubble removal.

IOM has so far received pledges totalling USD 19.6 million from the US government (OFDA/USAID), Sweden, Canada, France, Finland, Korea, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Clinton Foundation and Argos Cement Company of Colombia to support ongoing relief operations and future rebuilding efforts.

Private donations can be made to IOM through the IOM website at http://www.iom.int/ and in the United States at http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp